To Sleep, Perchance To Dream
by SoItGoes19
Summary: "She knew now: the only place that people could ever be truly free was in their dreams."  Euphemia forces Suzaku to get some rest, and by doing so learns an important lesson.


Princess Euphemia glanced at the clock once more and nervously twirled and strand of pink hair around her finger. Where was he? Suzaku had promised to meet with her this afternoon to discuss upcoming details for the opening of the Special Zone of Nippon, but he was over an hour late

"Princess Euphemia!" he cried as he sprinted through the great hall, only stopping to bow before her (multiple times) to apologize for his lateness. Euphemia started to giggle at his overzealous apologies and flushed expression, but all feelings of mirth evaporated once she saw the dark bags under his eyes.

"Suzaku!" she gasped, "Have you been sleeping alright?"

Suzaku blushed. "Well, not exactly. Lloyd kept me late doing drills to test the Lancelot's new radar system, and then I had a history report due today; so I had to stay up all night doing that. Actually the reason why I was late today was because I fell asleep in the computer lab."

He began to bow again "My apologies, Princess Euphemia."

_Always so formal, _she thought. She gently placed a hand on his shoulder. "Rise Suzaku. And there's no need for titles between us. Just call me Euphie, like on the day when we first met."

Suzaku smiled at the memory, and Euphie's heart soared. It was strange how a smile could transform someone's entire face. When Suzaku smiled, it made his green eyes sparkle like the brightest of emeralds. Hard lines of worry were replaced with small dimples on either side of his mouth, and he looked just like a little boy._ If only he could look like that all the time_.

Euphemia smiled and clapped her hands together. "I have a great idea! How about today, rather than planning, the two of us just take a break! You've been working so hard, and you look like you could use one."

Suzaku shook his head. "There's still so much to do. We still have to make preparations for the opening ceremony, check with the builders to make sure they had their plans approved, look at the new recruits to see if we could have over-booked..."

Suzaku looked up in time to see Euphemia's smile crumple. "I'm so sorry Euphie! Have I upset you?"

"No, no," Euphemia answered truthfully. "It's nothing that you did at all. Sometimes I just wish…that you had time to be Suzaku. Not necessarily a student or a soldier; just a boy. Sometimes I feel like you didn't even get to have a childhood."

Suzaku smiled sadly at her. "Thanks, Euphie. It means a lot to me that you would care enough about me to say something like that." Suddenly Suzaku realized the meaning behind he had said. "Not that you care about me more than anyone else!" he stammered, furiously waving his hands in front of him like he was trying to land a plane. "Or even that you care about me at all!"

Euphemia giggled once more. "Of course I care about you Suzaku-kun!" She linked her arm in through his and began steering him towards her personal quarters. "Now let's get to work!"

"I think we should definitely go with maximum security detail," Suzaku said. He spread the security document out on to the large wooden desk in Euphemia's study where the two of them were working. "You never know what kind of underhanded tricks Zero could try to pull, not to mention that Cornelia would have my head if I…" Suzaku paused as he tried to stifle a large didn't that threatened to split his face apart. "Didn't," he finished sleepily.

It broke Euphie's heart. _He's trying so hard to help me, and he can barely even hold his head up. _ "Suzaku, how about we take a break, just for a little bit. You seem so tired!"

Suzaku forced a smile on his face, "And leave you with all the work? What kind of knight would I be then?"

Euphemia sighed. How could she get her beloved knight to relax? Suddenly she had a spark of inspiration! "Hey, Suzaku! Do you think you could help me with something very important?"

"Sure, Euphie," he replied.

"Well, the opening ceremony is coming up, and I'm still not sure what I should wear."

"I think you look beautiful in anything," Suzaku said with a dreamy look on his face. He shook his head furiously, as if physically trying to force the thought out of his head. "Err, I mean, how about you just describe your ideas to me, and I'll help you pick out the best one."

"Oh good," Euphie said brightly. "That's exactly what I was hoping you'd say." _Cornelia might be the queen of the battlefield, but that doesn't mean I can't set a few traps of my own, _she thought deviously.

"The first option I was thinking about was a pink flowing dress with ruffles around the neckline, bows going down both of the sides, and a very long train, perhaps with a v-cut in the bust area, but I was also think about going for a scoop neck. Or possibly just skip the train, and go for a more modern look instead…"

Euphemia watched with baited breath as Suzaku's eyes began to flutter and slowly close. However she wasn't fully sure that he was asleep until he fell into her lap about three outfits in.

"Ooh!" she squeaked out in surprise. Truthfully Euphemia hadn't thought out her plan past lulling her knight to sleep with boring fashion descriptions, and wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do now. She looked longingly at the soft bed that was less than ten feet away from her, but knew that she would never be able to make it there without him waking up.

"I guess my only option is to just let him sleep here," she whispered to herself quietly.

A soft snore shifted her attention to the slumbering boy beneath her, causing Euphemia to shake her head and sigh lovingly. Beneath her was a man, no, a _boy_, who carried the weight of an entire country on his shoulders. His hair had been tousled slightly from his slumber, and Euphemia stroked it, humming an old Brittanian lullaby absent-mindedly.

When Suzaku was awake Euphemia would describe his bright green eyes as burning, glowing from within with passion for his country that he was forced to hide, and as she now knew, with the guilt that he carried from murdering his father. But now those burning eyes were hidden by long dark eyelashes and framed by brows unwrinkled by guilt or worry. With his eyes closed his face looked softer somehow, as if he were floating. As if he were free.

_But the only place people can truly be free is in their dreams, _she thought sadly. Euphemia looked at his mouth now, curled up in a soft smile that she saw all too rarely in his waking hours. What did Suzaku dream about? What did he long for in his heart of hearts? His country? His father?

Did he long for her?

They would never be able to be together. Euphemia was an idealist, but even she knew that much. Suzaku was a knight and she was a princess, but more than that he was Japanese (she could never bring herself to say that word eleven.) Cornelia would forbid it, and even worse Suzaku would never accept her love because he would be afraid to taint her name and reputation.

But she could dream. And oh, how beautiful those dreams were! They danced in front of her eyes, beautiful and dangerous all at once, the same feeling she would get when she and Cornelia were children playing on the castle roof-tops, daring each other to get closer and closer to the edge. She saw Suzaku kissing her hand before drawing her in close to begin the waltz; Suzaku eating breakfast with her, Cornelia, and brother Scheneizal in the family dining room, laughing over some shared joke; Suzaku gazing at her from the pillow next to her in bed, his eyes burning with a very different passion now, setting her body aflame with his gaze.

They were just dreams.

Then why did she want them so badly?

She looked at Suzaku smiling in his sleep once again. In their dreams they could be together. In their dreams they could be free.

Euphemia cleared her throat softly. "Well, then my city will be a city of dreamers."

Euphemia pressed a gentle kiss to Suzaku's lips. "Dream on my knight," she whispered to him, "Because only by dreaming can we make a better tomorrow."


End file.
